I read The Bad Apple by T.R. Burns and it’s the first book in the Merits of Mischief series. The main character is Seamus Hinkle and the book takes place at the Kilter Academy for Troubled Youth. I think it’s set in the present because there’s a reference to a SUV but there is some stuff that most people did in the past. 12 year old Seamus ends up at Kilter after an accident at his old school. Kilter isn’t a normal school. It’s a school that rewards bad behavior. At Kilter, it’s good to get in trouble but it’s bad to get gold stars. The book is about Seamus trying to fit in and make friends in a weird new school with lots of strange rules.

I think Seamus is responsible because he calls the Hoodlum Hotline (technically, the police) about bad things that keep happening at Kilter. When you call the Hoodlum Hotline, you are given gold stars. (Remember, gold stars are bad.) This is why students at Kilter don’t call the hotline; it actually gets you in trouble. Seamus calls the hotline because he thinks it’s a way to see his parents. I think Seamus isn’t a troubled kid because the accident that put him in Kilter really was an accident. No one at Kilter believes him. I think Seamus is loyal to his new friends Abe, Lemon, Gabby and Elinor because when they tried to do something bad and it backfires, Seamus goes to help them even though he doesn’t agree with their idea. Something that was interesting to me is the demerit system at Kilter Academy. Kilter has its own store. It sells paintballs, boomerangs and fire extinguishers for people whose heads catch on fire (which happens a lot there). Kids can go shopping whenever they have enough demerits to spend. The best fire extinguisher costs 2,000 demerits. That’s a lot of demerits. If you surprise a teacher with anything like a smoke bomb, you get 100 demerits. Kids save their demerits to get the better stuff. One thing that is interesting to me is the way Annika, the founder of Kilter Academy, treats her niece, Elinor. It surprised me because when Elinor once got hurt at school Annika barely lifted a finger . I thought that she would care more about her niece. Annika says that Elinor isn’t doing anything bad and regrets letting her into the school. This means Elinor can’t earn any demerits, which is the whole point of going to Kilter.

I liked this book because it had a lot of action and friendship in it. It has action when Seamus and his friends are trying to trick the teachers. It has friendship in it when one of Seamus and his friends plan backfires and Seamus comes to save his friends when their powers get used against them. I recommend this book to people who like mystery because you never know what’s going to happen next. Also, it’s a book about friendship because no matter what Seamus’s friends do, he does the same thing. I think it’s kinda related to fighting in hockey because hockey teams want people that can fight but fighting is bad in hockey. I would give this book 5 stars because I never wanted to put the book down.

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